Human Rights Abuses Deterred by Reagan / Says Abrams

Human Rights Abuses Deterred by Reagan / Says Abrams

Article excerpt

The Reagan Administration's policy of durable improvements in Latin
American has served as a deterrent to human rights abuses, said
Elliott Abrams Thursday.

Abrams, U.S. assistant secretary of state for inter-American
affairs, spoke at the University of Oklahoma.

In contrast to the Carter Administration which focused on human
rights, the Reagan Administration has had a clear and unifying
policy with vigorous and effective focus on democracy, he said.

In 1981, 750 death squad murders a month took place in El
Salvador, he said. Now the death figures have dropped to 2-4
percent of that, or about 30, he said.

Through the commitment of President Napoleon Duarte, El Salvador
now has a special investigative and forensic unit to investigate
crimes, he said.

Besides the reduction in the level of violence, Abrams said El
Salvador now has a spectrum of parties from "pretty far left to
right."

Supporters of Amnesty International USA and other students
opposed to current American policy in Latin America quietly
demonstrated outside of Holmberg Hall where Abrams spoke.

By sending clear messages to Latin American countries, the
United States has also reduced the threat of political coups, Abrams
said.

"In seven years and five weeks there have been no successful
coups under an elected civilian president," he said.

The strong position of the United States may well have had a
role in preventing a coup in Guatemala in May 1988, he said.

One of the most important contributions of the Reagan
Administration's Latin America policy was that it "delegitimitized
the importance of military dictatorship." "This was something only a
conservative Republican Administration can do," he said. …